Columbus Blue Jackets are ready for 2009-2010 season
The Jackets have finsigh building there team for the up coming season. We still wanted to sign a UFA center and we put up a good offer that was to his taste and a deal seemed reachable but we haven't heard from the agent in 6 days so we have decided to move on and go with the roster we currently have.
Nash - Brassard - Umberger
Filatov - Bergeron - Voracek
Chimera - Vermette- Torres
Murray - Novotny - Boll
Dorsett
Beauchemin - Campbell
Hejda - Commodore
Methot - Russell
Tollefsen
Mason
Biron
Payroll:
51.257mil$
Competing for NHL spot: Matt Pettinger, Nolan Baumgartner, Krys Kolanos, Alexandre Picard, Maxim Mayorov, Adam McQuaid and Andrei Plekhanov.
We like all our overall team. We feel we are very deep on offence. Adding Bergeron and Vermette for a full season should be key acquisition and also a hopefully healty Brassard should provide enough to support Nash. We also epect Voracek (in his second year) and Filatov to make a impact. We really like our 3rd line, alot of grit, speed and size. We feel it got the potential to be a dominant checking line, Vermette also brings the potential offence for the line.
Our defence as really improved with the acquisition of top defenceman Brian Campbell and Francois Beauchemin. Our transition game should really improve and we hope to improve the PP aswell with them. Our shut down pairing of Hejda and Commodore should continue their strong work from last year. Our strong top 4 will give a chance to Russell and Methot to continue their devellopement and become key players in the future.
In nets, we have our guy in Mason. Coming in his second season only, there is some risk which is way we went out and get Martin Biron on a 2 years deal. We want to be carefull with Mason and also keep him hungry as he will need to continue to play at a high level if he wants to stay in nets and hopefully make him learn to stay consistent because of it. Martin is a quality person, we expect him to be a great mentor to Mason and play well when call upon. We expect to use him on a regular basis to keep both our goalies fresh and ready to go in all situation.
We expect to be a top team in the western conference, ready to compete for the cup. We won't be a suprise team anymore, we must learn to play at a high level every game. We think we have more than enough depth and skills at all position to do that.
